Anno didn't keep Charles waiting. Barely two days after he sent word and explained the situation, the girl was already whipping her carriage along at top speed toward his monastery, eager to answer his call.
But they'd been apart for over a month. Seeing each other again at that moment, all that pent‑up longing went up like dry tinder meeting a spark.
Charles didn't rush into serious business. He pulled her straight into his room first, made sure they had one "last time," then only afterward did he lie back with her soft body in his arms, the summer quilt over them, and slowly walk her through the plan in detail.
Listening to him talk about that distant story, Anno's expression grew more and more grave, the afterglow of lovemaking fading from her face.
As a paladin, she didn't particularly care how tragic the backstory behind it all was. No matter the reason, the dead belonged in the ground. If they rose again as undead, they were a threat to the living, full stop.
That was her belief, one of the tenets of her Oath of Vengeance. When he finished, she couldn't help but blurt, "So when are we leaving? With undead like that, the sooner we wipe them out, the better!"
Charles scratched his head, a bit awkward. "No rush, actually. Uh… I'm still trying to line up a ship…"
He really hadn't expected Anno to arrive this fast. In his mind, she should've been buried in work over at Blackstaff Tower. He hadn't thought she'd be this proactive—and with nothing prepared yet, he suddenly felt pretty embarrassed.
His original plan had been to wait until his own shipyard finished its first vessel, buy it himself, then sail out to deal with the undead.
Reality, however, taught him a lesson. He'd badly overestimated the efficiency of a brand‑new shipyard, and he had no real sense of how long it actually took to build a ship from keel‑laying to launch.
So now, he'd ended up in a situation where he didn't have a ship at all—unless he went out and paid a premium for a large one right away. That felt like throwing money into the sea, so he really didn't want to do it.
To his surprise, Anno just asked, "How big a ship do you need?"
Charles counted on his fingers. "Uh… enough for at least over a hundred people. Every undead boss that wakes up will drag a hundred‑plus undead minions out with them. I need to bring all the battle nuns, so while we're dealing with the bosses, they can handle those annoying little guys."
The tricky part of this operation lay in dealing with the bosses—or more precisely, in taking out specific bosses without alerting the rest. The regular mobs weren't all that dangerous.
Charles didn't want to waste any more time than necessary mopping up trash mobs, so he'd decided to bring the nuns along. They could clean up the rabble during the boss fights, and get some much‑needed live combat experience out of it at the same time.
Ever since Montport, his battle nun corps had expanded to a hundred and twenty sisters: seventy‑two in the Life domain, forty‑eight in the Storm domain.
They'd all trained hard, but aside from the ones who'd gone to war at Montport the year before, most had yet to be tested in a real fight. Since this raid's difficulty wasn't that high, Charles planned to take them along to see what real battle looked like.
"Over a hundred people, huh…" Anno nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly said, "I actually have a ship. It should be able to carry two hundred."
Charles blinked. "Huh?"
"Yeah." Anno nodded. "A cousin of mine gave it to me as a birthday present. He was hoping I'd get into sailing, but I just never did. So the ship's been on loan to another cousin all this time—but her business hasn't been great these last two years, so as far as I know, the ship's been laid up doing nothing."
"If you want it, I'll just send word and have her people sail it over. Shouldn't take long."
Charles wiped a bit of cold sweat off his temple. Must be nice coming from money—getting a two‑hundred‑berth ship as a casual birthday present.
He wasn't about to turn her down, though. He nodded. "All right. Once the ship gets here, we'll set out."
Anno nodded firmly. "Mm. Deal!"
Then she rolled back on top of him, lips brushing his ear as she whispered, "Oh, right—you said you opened your own shipyard and even closed a warship deal with the Amazons, didn't you?"
Charles nodded. He had no reason to keep that kind of news from her, so he just said it straight. "Yeah… wait, don't tell me you're about to…"
He stared at the girl in surprise, only to see her eyes sparkling with excitement. "Did they try to strong‑arm you? Like…"
She cleared her throat and put on a mock‑serious voice. "'Mr. Charles, you wouldn't want your ships to go unsold, would you?' Something like that?"
"Well? Did they? Did you cave?"
Charles' first instinct was to say no, but faced with the eager look in her eyes, he swallowed and chose honesty. "They didn't put it that bluntly… but they did say they wanted to celebrate closing the deal, so they dragged me out for a victory party…"
"And at the party I got completely wasted. My whole body felt like it was on fire, and then…"
From his stockpile of nights being reverse‑pinned by Amazons, he picked out one or two episodes and murmured them into Anno's ear in slow detail. The more she heard, the greener her eyes seemed to glow. She got more and more worked up until, finally, she sank down onto him, taking his thick cock into herself and rolling her hips.
Her mind spun up vivid images of that debauched scene, and she used every ounce of strength to wring him dry, riding him all the way to a shared, shuddering peak.
At last, the utterly spent paladin collapsed in his arms and drifted off into a deep sleep. Holding the petite girlfriend snuggled against his chest, Charles couldn't help feeling a pang of worry. Anno's strange little fetish made him suspect it was going to cause all kinds of awkward trouble someday…
...
Seven days flew by in a blink.
Things went very smoothly on Anno's cousin's end. She even took the initiative to dispatch a crew to sail the ship into South Harbor, then sent people along to ask Anno how many sailors she needed—they could arrange as many as required.
Charles hurriedly had Anno tell them they wouldn't need any. With Hattie's magic, they could handle navigation perfectly well without extra hands.
Even so, as thanks, he still handed each of the crew a fat red envelope and treated them to a lavish meal before sending them on their way.
The next day, Charles brought Hattie, Theresa, Nymeria, and all the battle nuns aboard the great ship and officially set sail.
The nun‑laden vessel rode the waves, Hattie pouring everything she had into driving it forward. Even with her full power, though, they'd still need at least a full day to reach their destination. Until then, they'd be stuck out at sea.
The big ship raced ahead all morning. By noon, the deck had turned scorching under the midsummer sun, and a tired Hattie finally had to stop and take a break.
After lunch, none of the battle nuns went back to their cabins for a nap. Up on the foredeck, they'd all stripped out of their armor and changed into their everyday habits, clustering along the rail to stare down at the ocean below, itching to jump.
They were all seaside girls, almost born knowing how to swim. In high summer, spending an entire day soaking in the sea was pretty much a yearly ritual.
But today was different.
They weren't just themselves anymore—they were warriors under the banner of the Goddess of Life. They weren't out here to fish or have fun. Their mission was to eradicate the undead slumbering ahead.
Hattie had been casting spells all morning; they'd all seen how much it took out of her. If they went splashing around while she rested, it just didn't sit right.
The weight of responsibility pressed heavy on their hearts. None of the girls dared be the first to actually dive in. Still, the urge was real, so they started egging each other on in low voices.
"Winnie, I heard you're amazing at diving. Wanna show us something?"
"No, no, you go. I heard you're great at staying under. How about a demonstration?"
"I'm not! I actually can't swim at all. Hey, does Miss Nymeria know how to swim?"
"I do, but… ugh, I didn't bring a swimsuit…"
…
They teased each other, always trying to push someone else to be the first one in the water, but none of them would take the plunge themselves. They were all equally sly, and no one was about to get tricked into going first.
Just then, a silhouette stepped out from the cabin. At first the nuns crowding the deck didn't pay it any mind—but when they turned and saw who it was, they all fell silent as their breath caught.
It was Anno—and she'd shed her usual clothes for an insanely revealing little swimsuit.
It wasn't even a one‑piece. On top, she wore only an orange bikini bra. Her smooth, rounded shoulders and delicate, sexy collarbones were completely bare, catching the light in a crystalline sheen.
Two oval cups stretched sideways to cover her ample breasts, joined in the center by a single, impossibly thin string. North and south were both on full display, the deep cleavage between them laid bare for all to see.
Below that, her toned, flat lower abdomen was entirely exposed. Her tiny, tempting navel sat neat and clean at the center, begging for attention. A narrow orange bikini bottom just barely covered her most mysterious spot, while the pert curves of her ass peeked out from underneath, making you want to give it a sharp slap on instinct.
Lower still, her long, sculpted white legs were like flawless ivory statues—one look was enough to make anyone dizzy. She'd gone barefoot, too, standing on the deck with nothing on her feet. Those soft, plump little soles, pale with a hint of pink, were enough to stir appetites all on their own.
The battle nuns stared, faces flushing scarlet. None of them had expected the first person to appear in swimwear to be Anno—and even less had they imagined that the swimsuit she'd brought would be this outrageously bold and sexy.
~~~
Get early access to 370+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
https://patreon.com/TransFic
~~~